Friday 23 December 2011

A Month of Contrasts


Yes another month has gone by since I sat down and wrote something for my blog- but hey what a month from fly fishing in Mauritius to greyling fishing in the river Dee and demonstrating at the Irish Fly Fair. So where do I start ?
It has been a busy month in the Morgan house hold with me just popping home here and there just to pick up clean clothes and catching a few hours with the family!!!
Late in October John Emerson and myself ran another Grayling masterclass on the river Dee in North Wales and the river fished very well with everybody on the course catching beautiful fish. After that it was off to the Welsh bank trial to try and qualify for next years Welsh team. The trial was held on Garnffrwd fishery and it proved to be a testing trial. The morning was ok and I caught on stalking bugs and I ended in second place but boy did things change in the afternoon. I had takes on all platforms but could not convert these takes into fish landed and as the day went on the worse it got. To cut a long story short I caught my last fish with 5 minutes to go on a dry which meant I qualified for the team. To quote my old man " You just scrapped through "!!!
After that I was off to Ireland to the Irish Fly Fair in Galway and what great show. Thank you to everybody who came to the show and once again Mara Media did a fantastic job of organizing the show!!
It was then a 2 day turnaround as I was flying out of London to Mauritius to do some fly fishing with Beachcomber tours- the picture above shows Scott Mckenzie and myself fishing in the surf for GT's- It was a fantastic trip with accommodation to die for and the food was out of this world. It even made the 12 hour flight worth while. We had a great trip and the best fish landed was a 140 yellow fin Tuna (well done Scott) I did fight a black marlin ( estimated at 2-300lb)for all of 30 seconds!!!!! and we did get one other hit but that was it. The place is back on the map for big game fishing and I will be back!!
I flew back overnight landing in Heathrow at 6am and was in North Wales by 4pm to fish the Grayling International over the weekend. This was even a quicker turnaround with one hour at home to drop off my dirty clothes and pack my thermals!!! Two days of fishing with the river rising all the time. It was tough to say the least but we did manage to winkle a few fish out and by the end of the comp we came second. Well done to Ken Bathers and the team for running a great competition. It is a testament to their hard work as teams travel from as far a field as Belgium, Italy and the Isle of Man.
Can I take this opportunity to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and Tight Lines for the coming season